‘Perfectly,’ George said. He handed Crni a glass. ‘Your wine, Ivan.’ He turned to Sarina. ‘He doesn’t really like being called Crni. And don’t clench your fists. All right, all right, this is life in a nutshell. Decisions, decisions Do you kiss him or do you hit him?’ The bantering note left George’s voice. ‘If you’re mad because you’ve been fooled, then you’re a fool. There was no other way. You and your hurt pride. You’ve got your Partisans and he hasn’t to face a firing squad. Don’t you know how to be glad, girl? Or is there no room for emotions like relief and gratitude in the minds of you spoilt young aristocrats?’
‘George!’ She was shocked, less because of the words than the tone she had never heard before. ‘George! I am so selfish?’
‘Never.’ His good humour instantly restored, he squeezed her shoulders. ‘It’s just that I thought it would rather spoil the flavour of the moment if you were to give Peter a black eye.’ He glanced sideways. Harrison, his forehead on his forearms on the table, was softly pounding the table with his fist and muttering to himself. ‘You are not well, Captain Harrison?’
‘My God, my God, my God!’ The pounding with the fist continued.
‘A Sljivovica?’ George said.
Harrison lifted his head. ‘And the awful thing is that I am cursed with total recall. That,’ he added irrelevantly, ‘was why I was so good at passing exams. I can remember every word I said in that stirring speech about patriotism and duty and loyalty and myopic idiocy and -1 can’t go on, I can’t.’
‘You mustn’t reproach yourself, Jamie,’ Petersen said ‘Think what it did for our morale.’
‘If there was any justice, any compassion in this world,’ Harrison said, ‘this floor would open up beneath me at this very moment. A British officer, I called myself, thereby meaning there was no other. A highly skilled observer, evaluator, analyzer. Good God! Total recall, I tell you, total recall. It’s hell!’
‘I’m sorry I missed that speech,’ Crni said.
‘Pity,’ Petersen said. ‘Still, you’ve heard about Jamie s total recall. He can repeat it toy you verbatim any time you want.
‘Spare the vanquished,’ Harrison said. ‘I heard what you said to Sarina, George, but I remain bitter. Fooled, fooled fooled. And doubly bitter because Peter didn’t trust me But you trusted Giacomo, didn’t you? He knew.’
‘I told Giacomo nothing,’ Petersen said. ‘He guessed – he’s a soldier.’
‘And I’m not? Well, that’s for sure. How did you guess Giacomo?’
‘I heard what you heard. I heard the Major telling suggesting rather, to Captain Crni that his intention to rope us up before descending that cliff path was dangerous. Captain Crni is not the man to take an order or suggestion from anyone. So then I knew.’
‘Of course. I missed it. So you didn’t trust any of us, did you Peter?’
‘I didn’t. I had to know where I stood with you all. Lots of odd things have been happening in Rome and ever since we left Rome. I had to know. You’d have done the same.’
‘Me? I wouldn’t have noticed anything odd in the first place. When did you come to the decision that you were free to talk? And why did you decide to talk? My God, when I come to think of it, when have you ever been free to talk? My word, I can’t imagine it, I just can’t. Can you, Sarina? Living the life of a lie, surrounded by enemies, one false move, one unconsidered slip, one careless word and pouf! And he spent almost half his time with us!’
‘Ah! But I spent the other half with our own people. Holiday, you might say.’
‘Oh, God, holiday. I knew – and I haven’t known you long – that you were something different, but this – but this – it passes my comprehension. And you, a man like you, you’re only the deputy chief. I’d love to meet the man you call chief.’
‘I don’t call him “chief.” I call him lots of other things but not that. As for loving to meet him, you don’t have to bother. You’ve already met him. In fact, you’ve described him. Big fat clown, naive and illiterate, who spends his time floating around in cloud-cuckoo-land. Or was it the groves of academe? I don’t remember.’
Harrison spilled the contents of his glass on the table. He looked dazed. ‘I don’t believe it.’
‘Nobody does. I’m his right arm, only, in charge of field operations. As you know, he seldom accompanies me. This mission was different but, then, this was an unusually important mission. Couldn’t be trusted to bunglers like me.’
Michael approached George, a certain awed incredulity in his face. ‘But in Mostar you told me you were a Sergeant Major.’
‘A tiny prevarication.’ George waved his hand in airy dismissal. ‘Inevitable in this line of business. Tiny prevarication’s, I mean. But I did say it was a temporary not substantive rank. General major.’
‘Good God!’ Michael was overcome. ‘I mean “Sir”.’
‘It’s too much.’ Harrison didn’t even notice when George courteously refilled his glass. ‘It’s really too much. Too much for the reeling mind to encompass. Maybe I haven’t such a mind after all. Tell me next that I’m Adolph Hitler and I’d seriously consider the possibility.’ He looked at George, shook his head and drained half his glass. ‘You see before you a man trying to find his way back to reality. Now, where was I? Ah, yes. I was asking you when you came to the decision you were free to talk.’
‘When you told me – or Lorraine did – about your Jenny.’
‘Ah, yes, of course. Jenny. I see.’ It was plain that Harrison was quite baffled. He suddenly, physically, shook himself. ‘What the hell has Jenny got to do with this?’
‘Nothing, directly.’
‘Ah Jenny. Lorraine. The question that Captain Crni asked me through there.’
Lorraine said in a quiet voice: ‘What question, James?’
,’He asked me if I knew Giancarlo Tremino – you know, Carlos. Of course I said yes, I knew him very well.’ He looked down at his glass. ‘Perhaps I shouldn’t have answered. I mean, they weren’t torturing me or anything. Maybe I don’t have such a mind after all.’
‘It wasn’t your fault, James,’ Lorraine said. ‘You weren’t to know. Besides, there’s been no harm done.’
‘How do you know there’s been no harm done, Lorraine?’ Sarina sounded bitter. ‘I know it wasn’t Captain Harrison’s fault. And I know it wasn’t really Captain Crni who asked the question. Don’t you know that Major Petersen always finds out what he wants? Are we still to regard ourselves as prisoners in this room, Captain Crni?’
‘Good God, no! As far as I’m concerned the house is yours. Anyway, you don’t ask me. Major Petersen is in charge.’
‘Or you, George?’ She smiled faintly. ‘Sorry. I’m not used to the General major yet.’
‘Quite frankly, neither am I. George is fine.’ He smiled and wagged a finger at her. ‘Don’t try to spread dissension in the ranks. Outside my head office, which at the moment is a disused shepherd’s hut up near Bihac, Peter is in sole charge. I just point in the general direction and then get out of the way. If you know you’re not in his class, as I’m wise enough to know, you don’t interfere with the best field operative there is.’
‘Could I speak to you, Major? In the hall?’
‘Ominous,’ he said and picked up his glass. ‘Very ominous.’ He followed her out and closed the door behind them. ‘Well?’
She hesitated. ‘I don’t know quite how to say this. I think-‘
‘If you don’t know what to say and you’re still at the thinking stage, why waste my time in this really melodramatic fashion?’
‘It’s not silly. It’s not dramatic! And you’re not going to make me mad. What you’ve just said sums you up. Superior, cutting, contemptuous, never making allowances for people’s faults and weaknesses: and at the same time you can be the most thoughtful and kind person I know. It’s not just that you’re unbearable. You’re unknowable. Jekyll and Hyde. The Dr Jekyll bit I like and admire. You’re brave, George thinks you’re brilliant, you take incredible risks that would destroy a person like me and, best of all, you’re very good at looking after people. Anyway, I knew last night that you couldn’t belong to those people.’
Petersen smiled. ‘I won’t give you the chance of telling me again how nasty I am, so I won’t say you’re being wise after the event.’
‘You’re wrong,’ she said quietly. ‘It was something that Major Metrovic said last night about Tito’s Achilles’ heel, his lack of mobility, his three thousand wounded men. In any civilized war – if there is such a thing – those men would be left to the enemy who would treat them in hospital. This is no civilized war. They would be massacred. You could never be a party to that.’